I Find Out My Boyfriend Plays Pokemon

Pomemon was not a big part of my childhood, but I wasn’t blind to it. Pokemania did not go unnoticed to me as a 5th/6th grader. I would see my classmates pull out their decks on their desks and show each other their newly acquired cards. At some point I got my hand on my own pack of cards and I brought them into school to show off. It was clear to me I didn’t know as much as the other kids and my interest in Pokemon didn’t last long. I ended up giving my cards to my younger brother.

My only other interaction with Pokemon was mainly through him. He occasionally watched the TV show and had a few of the Pokemon video games. We would take turns playing the game on long car rides and family vacations. I would say my brother wasn’t the most loyal Pokemon fan. He mainly focused on leveling his Pokemon up quickly so that he could ruin the lives of unsuspecting Pokemon and any Pokemon trainers who might have the misfortune to battle him. He prided himself in the power of his team. When the Game Boy Advance came out he found new ways to be the most powerful trainer, including using a GameShark. I never had the patience or enough interest to play through an entire game.

Fast forward about 8 years and I find out my boyfriend plays Pokemon. I didn’t think too much of it, for all I knew it was just a video game where you hunt for little creatures and level up to be the best. My boyfriend, aka Blue, showed me that battling Pokemon could be very strategic and required an in depth understanding of each Pokemon's unique characteristics.

During our first Christmas together we decided to get DSi’s for each other. Blue was excited about Pokemon Platinum and I was excited for the latest Super Mario Bros game. We each got a copy of Pokemon Platinum and I promised to play through it with him. It was made clear by Blue and his best friend, Kevin, that a cool girlfriends played Pokemon. Well… that didn’t happen! I lost interest and Pokemon Platinum, along with my other games, went unplayed.

When Pokemon Black and White came out, Blue and Kevin would talk of nothing but Pokemon. Wanting to be included, I again promised I would play through Pokemon White with Blue. Again I couldn’t keep up with their pace, I lost interest and the game got put away. Not playing Pokemon became an inside joke among the three of us. Kevin would say, “Well if only you played Pokemon”.

After Blue and I got married, Pokemon X and Y came out. Blue had given up on getting me to play and had found himself unemployed. By now I knew his love of the game was strong enough to not expect his attention for a few weeks after a new game release. As it became more and more apparent that finding a job in our new city wasn’t as easy as we thought, Pokemon was something he could focus on. He got more and more into the competitive scene and it was abundantly clear to that Pokemon was not just “a video game where you hunt for little creatures”. We started watching ShadyPenguinn together after I got home from work and Pokemon became entertainment, even if I didn’t know what was going on most of the time.

A year and a half later, I’m doing a Pokemon podcast with my husband. I still don’t know a whole lot about Pokemon, but I'm learning and trying to get better every day. I have done a lot of things in the last 5 months that I didn’t expect I’d be doing. Like, I never would’ve thought I would have finally completed a play-through of a Pokemon game. And, I never would've thought I would be spending vacation days trying to go to a Pokemon event. Collecting Pokemon cards; didn’t think I'd be doing that either. One thing I do know for sure is... Pokemon has become something really positive in my life and I’m glad it’s something I get to share with my husband, Blue.